Rape Culture: A culture that normalizes rape through media, images, ideologies, and social practices.
We live in a rape culture. We live in a culture that ignores rape and makes it seen acceptable. We live in a culture that enables rapists but hinders victims. Why are so many people ignoring rape culture? What is rape culture? And how do we stop it?
Rape culture is...
1. Rape culture is teaching girls to dress a certain way instead of teaching boys to respect women.
2. Rape culture is finding reasons to place blame on the victim and not the rapist.
3. Rape culture is CNN having sympathy for a rapist, saying the victims ruined the football star's athletic career by reporting him.
4. Rape culture is ads like these and Budweiser printing "The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night" on their beer bottles.
5. Rape culture is Todd Akin, former member of the United States House of Representatives, claiming that there are different types of rape; legitimate rape and honest rape. Let's be honest Todd, all rape is legitimate.
6. Rape culture is memes like this circulating social media.
7. Rape culture is using terms like "I raped that test" or "We're about to rape this team" without realizing the seriousness of the word.
8. Rape culture is assuming that every woman is lying about her rape when really less than 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported falsely.
9. Rape culture is young women looking at a college's rape and sexual assault statistics before applying.
10. Rape culture is teaching college girls not to accept drinks instead of teaching boys not to slip drugs into anyone's drink.
11. Rape culture is iTune's top 10 music telling girls "you know you want it."
No means no, not convince me. Understand what rape is and stop taking it lightly. Consent is not sexy, it is MANDATORY. Sexual assault affects the lives of one in every four college students. Stop teaching girls to modify how they live and start teaching boys to respect women.
Be the change you wish to see in the world and stop rape culture.